The Nitty-Gritty

Today I worked on getting some of the annoying little projects out of the way in the front yard. I have been focusing on the front of the house because we are waiting on other people (contractors) for the inside right now... and the outside makes the biggest difference to the most people- not too many people coming inside these days with the house the wreck that it is...

This was the side yard- to the right of the house...

Much better. 

I mentioned before that Dave is going to bury the gutter and have it drain out somewhere else- (I can't seem to quite understand how this will work, but he worked landscaping for a few summers in high school and knows what he is talking about...), but I do understand that we won't have the long gutter going out into our yard, it will just go down the column like it is now and then into the ground... This has been a big eyesore and so until it gets buried, I helped it out a little by painting it...

Better huh?

Once the rest of it is buried and we add a bunch of bushes and flowers, it will hardly be noticeable. 

See how it blends in with the brick now and the white of the columns pop more? Makes me happy. 

Another thing I keep meaning to do is get the random paint drips/spots off of the cement. 

This stuff is amazing! I have used it all over inside our house. The company that painted the inside all one color was pretty sloppy... I picked it up at Home Depot not knowing if it would work (I was looking for something else) and this has proven to be an amazing product. It gets paint off of everything- 

very easily. 

I sprayed the spots, let them sit and then scrubbed them with an old toothbrush... and scrubbed some more...

I hosed everything off and after everything had dried...

It doesn't look brand new, but I am thrilled to not have the big white splatters everywhere.